Please explain eflorescience

[adamh]

What is it? What is the cause? How to prevent?

Thank you

Adam

 

[Hoody]

Efflorescence is actually a salt build up. It happens a lot in showers where water gets underneath the tile. Has to be removed with an acid, and difficult to remove on natural stones as the acid with etch a lot of stone. Efflorescence is usually cause by leaky shower pans, or bad installation. If the caulking is bad on an installation and water is getting in that crevice it can cause that as well.

Prevention - stop the water from getting underneath the tile. Sometimes it is just a really poor installation and it needs to be completely re-done. You can however tear out and replace the caulking. Pain in the rear tedious stuff sometimes, charge accordingly.

EDIT: On natural polished stones, you can normally have to re-polish the stone after removal, this will also remove any etching your acid cleaner made.

 

[John Olson]

Hoody is kinda right. It is minerals leaching from the stone. This can happen to grout, natural stone and even cement. Basically anything made from the earth with high calcium/mineral content. How you prevent it is sealing the source and or drying extremely fast. You will need to use an acid to remove it as hoody said but where that isn't possible an wire brush and a vacuum work just be careful and be sure to seal the area well or the next time you get it wet it will just happen again and be sure to educate your customer you did not fix the problem and without proper maintenance at some point it will happen again and there is really no way to permanently stop it unless the grout/floor is removed and even then there is no guarantee they wont end up with the same problem.

 

[BLewis]

John and Hoody,
I wanted to say thanks for your 2 posts. This is what I really enjoy about the board is education. I kinda understood eflorescience, however I reallly didn't know that the problem couldn't be fixed permanently.

So to both of you thanks alot.

 

[joe harper]

This is what happens when sealer is applied...before allowing the substrate to CURE properly.
We removed the sealer....& the same problem arose 90 days LATER.....

 

[Dolly Llama]

are those YOUR shooz??



..L.T.A.

 

[joe harper]

are those YOUR shooz??

Those are my sons....cLoG'S...

He was TramUaTizEd as a child by a BUCKET in the tUB... :shock:



..L.T.A.

 

[J Scott W]

To add a bit to Hoody's and John's fine posts -
Efflorescence may appear as a white powdery substance or it may look more like a crystal. It depends how fast the water evaporates from the mineral salts. The crystalline form is much more difficult to remove than the powdery type.

If you see evidence of efflorescence, when you inspect a job, you should expect to deal with again. History tends to repeat itself.

Cementitious grout, Saltillo or Mexican style tile and slate are more prone to efflorescence than most other types of tile.